Saturday, 16 April 2011

I've been meaning to visit the new Ms Cupcake store in Brixton since the opening day on April 1st but hangovers, holidays and life in general has gotten in the way till today.

Firstly please accept my apologies for the pics - I forgot my camera, was using my iPhone, and the sun was shining directly into the store so everything pretty much had my reflection in it...grrrr. But, the sun shining is a good thing - the shop is a great sun trap with windows on three sides making it light and lovely. It is also much bigger than I thought it would be, with some lovely tables outside so you can enjoy your vegan goodies there and then, with drinks from Rosie's Deli next door if you choose (not sure if they do vegan drinks - sorry!).

When I arrived fellow cupcake blogger Kelly of An American Cupcake in London had just arrived, and Jason immediately started preparing a plate of goodies for us to try, including the item that had ensured we both visited today - the vegan doughnuts.

As readers will know I'm already a fan of Ms C's cupcakes, so after reading yesterday on Twitter that they were now doing doughnuts I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try something different. We got 3 mini doughnuts each (I like to call them doughnut middles as they seem like the little bit you'd poke out of a ring doughnut - is that weird?) - sugar, cinnamon and Boston cream. All three were nice, the cinnamon was very cinnamon'y, and the Boston cream was definitely my favourite. We also got two cookie sandwiches; a vanilla filled and a chocolate filled. I ate the vanilla one there but just couldn't manage any more and took the chocolate one home to share with Manny. It was delicious - I preferred the chocolate cookie to the vanilla (unusual for me!).

Jason came out and had a chat with us and told us how busy they'd been and how they had lots of plans for other vegan treats - the whole time people going in and buying cupcakes and goodies. It was really nice to see it doing so well - the staff were incredibly busy!

Before leaving we checked out the cupcake range and each bought a key lime cupcake (they looked too nice to resist). I also bought Manny a chocolate sprinkled doughnut and we headed off into Brixton Market. Thanks to Ms C's advice I saved myself a lot of money and managed to pick up a mini bundt tin for £2 in one of those 'pound' shop places. It had a vast array of trays so if you want to know where it was let me know. Also if you're looking for a human sized saucepan Brixton Market is your place.

I walked Kelly back to the station and did some more shopping, and managed to find banana extract - something I've been searching everywhere for. Yay!

When Manny came home we tried out my takeaway goodies.

First up the chocolate doughnut. Manny and I really enjoyed it (I particularly liked the chocolate coating), but felt it needed to be a little bit more sticky and doughnut'y. Still really nice but I did prefer the little stuffed ones.

The key lime cupcake was AMAZING! Really moist, citrus'y and flavoursome, you can tell they were baked fresh and not sat on a shelf for days. The fabulous shocking green frosting was really tart, packed full of flavour, and not overly sweet, but instead refreshing. Oh, and there was LOTS of it! A much needed great cupcake after yesterdays shocker!

Every time I eat one of Ms C's cupcakes I'm trying to figure out how she makes things taste so good without my favourite baking ingredient, butter. Perhaps I need to sit outside watching them bake all day to see what I can pick up!

I highly recommend people pop over to the Brixton store, 408 Coldhabour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LF, to pick up a cupcake or two! You might spot me outside trying to learn a vegan baking secret or two!

9 comments:

I NEED to get to Ms Cupcake's shop! I follow her on FB and she looks amazing :)

On another note have you seen this cake shop online? http://thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/catalog/ I only ask as they are opening a shop in Nottm in June and I got to have an nosey around pre-opening and they have the 'Lorann extracts and oils' in a vast array of flavours... I bought cinnamon roll and vanilla butternut which I can't wait to use :)

I remember Ms Cupcakes awesome entries to ICL. The greatest compliment I can give is that I wouldn't know they were vegan i.e. they had the same texture and flavours as non-vegan cupcakes.Hope she does well - she's a lovely person.

Kelly - was lovely to see you and have a coffee, and of course cake! I'm very happy I found it - shall be experimenting with it soon

Star Bakery - her cakes are fabulous so I definitely recommend a visit. Thank you so much for that link - I'd not seen their site - I'm drooling over everything I want right now. Time to shop I think! Cinnamon roll flavouring sounds fabulous!

Baking Addict - it's on Atlantic Avenue, if you're walking from the Brixton Station end it's the just after a small hole in the wall coffee shop -it's got lots of pans/cleaning stuff outside - the trays are inside. There are two on the street that sell trays and stuff cheaply - the first one has the bundt trays.

Caked Crusader - they were fabulous and I said the same thing - I wouldn't guess they were vegan at all! I 100% agree that I wish her all the luck in the world - she's lovely :)

I have to go to the shop with you soon! Those goodies you brought back were lovely :) I would never have guessed that key lime cupcake was vegan in a million years if I hadn't know, so moist and full of flavour. The cookie ruled too - I really hope the shop is a success!

The green of the lime cupcake look like it is this summer's special! Lovely, lush looking and so mouth watering. I never miss Ms C and the market every time I go down to Brixton. Thanks for this wonderful post.

Hexi - hello thanks for stopping by and commenting. Definitely check out Ms Cupcake next time you're here- she is worth the trip!I'm still waiting to get my cupcake tattoo - am going to get one on my wrist :)

Manny - we'll have to pop over one weekend when you're free. Brixton is great for coffee/foods and now of course CAKE!

Jane - thanks for commenting. The key lime was great and I highly recommend it! Sounds like you're already a fan though :)

About me...

Hi, I'm Anne, a self confessed cupcake addict. I always give my (occasionally brutally) honest opinion of cupcakes I try, and my aim is to stamp out bad cupcakes. I gave up my office job earlier this year and now earn my living baking, which I love.
If you have any questions please get in touch
iheartcupcakes@hotmail.co.uk